Magazine

A tired mom holding a baby bottle of infant formula next to a half-empty coffee mug

Why I Finally Stopped Stressing About Enfamil Baby Formula

The absolute biggest myth in modern parenting is that if you aren't illegally importing some $40-a-can organic goat's milk concoction translated from German on a sketchy third-party website, you're basically poisoning your child. I know this because seven years ago,...

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A very tired British dad holding a baby in a frog-legged Pavlik harness

The Unexpected Drama of Having a Hip Dysplasia Baby

The six-week checkup at your local NHS GP surgery is supposed to be a relatively victorious milestone. You have kept a human alive for a month and a half, you're operating on a cumulative total of eleven minutes of sleep,...

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A stressed mom holding a tiny baby shoe and looking for a baby brown recluse spider

Dear Me: Surviving a Baby Brown Recluse Spider Scare in the Nursery

Dear Sarah from six months ago. You're currently standing in the laundry room at 2:14 AM wearing a milk-stained inside-out nursing tank and one sock. You're holding Maya's tiny pink shoe under the blinding fluorescent light, squinting at a squished...

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Toddler pulling off heavy winter boots on a rug

Dear Past Priya: The Ugly Truth About Buying Baby Boots

Dear Priya from last November. You're currently wedged between the radiator and the front door of our Chicago apartment, sweating completely through your shirt. You're trying to wrestle a screaming nine-month-old into a tiny fleece snowsuit while staring at a...

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Close up of a sleeping newborn baby's tiny hand resting on a soft blue blanket.

The Truth About Baby Blue Nails: When to Panic and When to Chill

Maya was exactly three weeks old, and we were sitting in a freezing local coffee shop because I had reached a level of sleep deprivation where I physically needed to be around other adult humans or I was going to...

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Exhausted mom doing bicycle legs with a crying gassy newborn on a playmat

The 3 AM Fart Wars: Real Gas Relief For Miserable Babies

It's 2:14 in the morning. I'm wearing a stretched-out nursing bra that smells faintly of sour milk and desperation, sitting cross-legged on the nursery rug, furiously pumping my three-week-old son's legs like he's trying to win the Tour de France....

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An ultrasound monitor showing a baby in the womb while a mother looks on

How Do Babies Breathe In The Womb? My Midwife Set Me Straight

There I was, twenty weeks pregnant with my oldest, laying on a paper-covered table in a freezing room that smelled distinctly of industrial hand sanitizer and old magazines. The ultrasound tech was aggressively pushing the wand into my bladder when...

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A mom holding a bowl of roasted carrots in her kitchen

How are baby carrots made: The paranoid mom's guide

I was standing in my Chicago kitchen at two in the afternoon holding a plastic bag of orange nubs, just staring blindly at my phone. My six-month-old was sitting in the high chair, banging a silicone spoon against his tray,...

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Tired mother rocking a toddler in a dark nursery with a smart speaker nearby

Unpacking the hit me baby one more time lyrics at 3 AM

It was 3:14 AM in Chicago. The wind was doing that thing where it aggressively rattles the apartment windows, and my toddler was running a mild fever from an ear infection. I was operating on maybe three hours of broken...

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